'Drop gay marriage Bill and heed ordinary Tories'

Ordinary Conservatives cannot understand why the leadership is being
distracted by the issue of gay marriage, and are being treated as "pariahs"
for expressing their doubts about a change in the law, says David Burrowes

An unprecedented number of Cabinet ministers, ministers, whips, ministerial aides and backbenchers – most Conservative MPs – voted against the principle of a BillPhoto: ALAMY

By David Burrowes

9:00PM BST 18 May 2013

Voters in my constituency know precisely where I stand on the issue of redefining marriage. I want marriage to stay as it is, as do most of those that are bothered by the issue.

Those who hold this view are often people of good will, yet too many of them have been treated as pariahs – and the remarks reported yesterday about “swivel-eyed loons” are further evidence of this.

The last thing we should be doing is abusing those Conservatives who stand up for traditional values and work hard for the party.

We should have learnt this lesson by now. That dismissive tone has only served to harden their perception that politicians are out of touch with the values and priorities of ordinary people.

Many of those voters may end up voting for someone else because they are annoyed with the party for pushing this issue in the first place.

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The irony is that it is Tories who are leading the opposition to the Bill and the Government is dependent on Labour’s support to secure safe passage of the legislation.

An unprecedented number of Cabinet ministers, ministers, whips, ministerial aides and backbenchers – most Conservative MPs – voted against the principle of a Bill.

Now even more who are concerned about the practical implications of the Bill are planning to back my amendments.

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, was right to say on BBC’s Question Time last week that the voters are deeply upset. They can’t understand why such a pro-marriage Prime Minister should want to deconstruct the foundations of the institution of marriage – the union of a man and a woman.

They can’t fathom why a Government which is focusing on the key issues of fixing our economy, reforming welfare, improving education and cutting immigration should be distracted by legalising same-sex marriage.

We haven’t just lost votes; the party has lost key people from the grassroots. Councillors have been resigning over the issue, so too have long-serving association chairmen.

They are people with years of experience and know-how. They are crucial players in getting out the vote at election time. We can’t afford to lose them.

The local election results were a real wake-up call to all politicians. We must do more to show that we are listening, and we can start on Monday when the Bill returns to the Commons by accepting amendments to protect freedom of speech and conscience.

The Government’s latest attempt to limit the damage of the Bill is to carefully review civil partnerships over the next few years because of the huge financial impact of heterosexual civil partnerships. If only it had showed the same care for the social impact of redefining marriage.

Sadly, it is only proving what many of us have been warning the Government about. This Bill will undermine the importance of marriage in society.

Another amendment by the Government promises to protect individual chaplains from being forced to perform same-sex weddings.

But that does not address the real civil liberty concerns. A police chaplain was thrown out by Strathclyde police because he defended traditional marriage on his personal blog.

It is the freedom to express support for traditional marriage that needs protecting, but the Government’s focus has solely been on protecting churches and clergy from being forced to officiate at ceremonies with which they disagree.

We need to look out more for people like Adrian Smith who was demoted simply for saying church same sex marriages were “an equality too far”.

I have tabled a raft of amendments that will give proper protection to people who want to keep marriage as it is. The belief that marriage is the voluntary lifelong union of a man and a woman should be specifically protected under equality laws. It is up to Conservatives to protect these freedoms.

Labour show how little they care by imposing a three-line whip on MPs to oppose these amendments. It wants to prevent MPs exercising their consciences on amendments that will protect their constituents’ consciences.

There is already a “chill factor” suppressing the freedom to stand up for traditional marriage. I have never in my 20 years in politics – as a councillor and now as an MP – experienced such hostility and hate-filled abuse simply for supporting marriage.

This intolerance has only encouraged me to do all I can in this Bill to at least protect our constituents’ freedom to express their reasonably held view.

Last time, the Bill was before all MPs we had four minutes each to make a speech and now on Monday we will have just a few hours to consider whether schools, registrars, churches and individuals should have their freedoms given greater protection.

The Marriage Bill – with profound ramifications for marriage and liberty – is being hustled through Parliament with undue haste and minimum scrutiny.

It is time to drop the Bill or at least amend it, and then let the Lords put us out of our misery and kill it off.